Residents have threatened legal action, while Harbor Master Ian MacMillan says that state law requires written approval from Griffith before mooring permits can be issued. In a two-and-a-half hour meeting Tuesday, town legal counsel, at the behest of First Selectman Peter Tesei, tried to play peacemaker in an effort to ease the conflict, at least momentarily, giving lawyers from both sides a chance to lay out their cases and establish common ground.

Representatives from both sides say the meeting has left them cautiously optimistic.

Griffith, several neighbors and Rocky Point Club President David Robbin, along with their respective lawyers, came together for the first time to discuss their differences. Joining them were MacMillan and several state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection officials in hopes of clearing the murky legal waters surrounding Griffith's beds.

While little formal progress was made, those present said the meeting helped establish a baseline of factual agreement on some key issues, such as state statutes requiring the approval of a shellfish bed's owner or lessee before a mooring permit can be issued there.

The outlook following the meeting was positive.

"We're working on things," said attorney Carolyn Swiggart, who is representing Griffith. "There was a positive reaction. I think we are going to get where we need to get."

Karen Sadik-Kahn, one of the contesting neighbors, described the meeting as "good," but declined to comment further. Tesei called the meeting "productive."

"We thought it was a productive and positive discussion," said Dennis Schain, a DEEP spokesman. "Things are moving in a positive direction."

While ostensibly private, the dispute had significant public implications and involves a great number of people through the Rocky Point Club, said Tesei -- conditions that merit greater town involvement than an average neighborly dispute.

"This one involves waters that are public that are governed by the state," he said. "The town has an interest in that, so it's different than a neighbor-versus-neighbor dispute over a tree."

Town officials had come under fire in recent weeks for their involvement in the dispute, critics citing the fact that Sadik-Kahn is a prominent Representative Town Meeting member.

For as many as four decades, the handful of coastal residents between Rocky Point and Tomac Bay in Old Greenwich, as well as the Rocky Point Club, moored their boats without issue in the prime shellfish cultivating grounds just off their backyards.

But last spring, Griffith, who had run the Old Greenwich beds for more than a decade, announced his changed policy. The fee would help cover the liabilities he faced in having to utilize his expensive equipment around potentially hazardous moorings.

The town has sent a letter to the State's Attorney's Office requesting information about the legality and precedent of charging fees for moorings in a shellfish bed.